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Volume 211, No. 05
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Cooperstown, New York, Thursday, January 31, 2019
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Oneonta Hotel Twice Leaks Carbon Monoxide, Forcing Its Office-Building Neighbors To Flee
NOW WHAT?
Private Life Beckons To Lou Allstadt He Leaves Cooperstown Village Board, But Stays Involved In Public Affairs By JIM KEVLIN COOPERSTOWN
‘I
t’s been my longest job – at the lowest pay,” former Mobil Oil executive vice president Lou Allstadt told his colleagues Monday, Jan. 28, in resigning from the Village Allstadt Board. Resigning, but it doesn’t mean he’s exactly retiring. He’s remaining on the Village Board’s Economic Development Please See ALLSTADT, A7
The Freeman’s Journal
Among attendees at the Goodyear Lake Polar Bear Jump Chinese auction Sunday, Jan. 27, at Milford Central, was Ruby Wright, 2, of Worcester, a beneficiary of the 2017 jump. How’s she doing? “Great!” said dad Van. More photos on A3 and
AllOTSEGO.com
www.
150-Plus Head To Debates At Energy Summit
AT WSKG, TALK
COOPERSTOWN
I
t’s exploded like, well, a gusher. The Otsego County Chamber of Commerce “Energy Summit” Thursday, Jan. 31, at The Otesaga has expanded from six to nine hours, and will include 19 speakers in an attempt to give everybody a chance to be heard. As this edition went to press, Chamber Executive Barbara Ann Heegan said 155 people had registered. Follow real-time reports throughout the day at
AllOTSEGO.com
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ON
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►MACGUIRE BENTON was nominated for a one-year term on the Cooperstown Village Board at the Democratic Caucus Tuesday, Jan. 29, in the topfloor ballroom at Village Hall. ►A STATE TROOPER was wounded after exchanging gunfire with suspect after a car chase early yesterday evening on Route 17 in the Town of Kirkwood, south of Binghamton. The shooter was killed.
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
Oneonta Assistant Fire Chief Jim Maloney (dark classes) enters 189 Main after it was evacuated Monday, Jan. 28, for a second time, by fumes from the former Oneonta Hotel next door. At left, city Code Enforcement Inspector John Hester and Stephen Yearly follow.
By LIBBY CUDMORE ONEONTA
M
ayor Gary Herzig did not mince words after carbonmonoxide leaks from the former Oneonta Hotel caused the adjacent 189 Main professional offices next door to be evacuated twice The prestigious 189 Main in four days. office building is at left, the “People’s well-being is at risk if Oneonta Hotel, at right.
we delay action any further,” Herzig said. “Not bringing that building up to code is a risk we should not be taking.” On Monday, Jan. 28, a woman was taken by ambulance to Fox Hospital with blue lips and blue fingernails, signs of carbonmonoxide poisoning, after a hot water heater in the basement of 195 Main malfunctioned, pumping C-O gas into the ventilation Please See HOTEL, A7
Knell Sounds On Classical Music Locally By LIBBY CUDMORE
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t’s could be the day the music died – classical music, that is – in Otsego County. On Sunday, Feb. 3, Binghamton-based WSKG, which broadcast on 91.7 across much of the county – will convert from classical music and news programming to all-talk, including “Fresh Air” and “Morning Edition”. Please See RADIO, A7
County’s 2nd Solar Farm About To Power On Scott Nyquist, project manager at Laurens’ Solstice solar farm, shows off the extent of the panels in a 13-acre field north of the village.
Panels Will Start Generating In February By JENNIFER HILL LAURENS
P
oised to open a solar farm in Laurens – Otsego County’s second – Solstice executives say the company wants to make sure that everyone around here can afford solar energy. That includes “people who
need the savings the most,” said Andrew Alayza, marketing director for the international solar-farm developer. Four-hundred local families have already signed up for all the capacity the farm will produce, but Solstice is encouraging people to get on a waiting list for future projects. Solstice, with offices in Chicago, New York and Argen Please See SOLAR, A7
Ian Austin/The Freeman’s Journal
THE FREEMAN’S JOURNAL & HOMETOWN ONEONTA, OTSEGO COUNTY’S LARGEST PRINT CIRCULATION 2010 WINNERS OF The Otsego County Chamber/KEY BANK SMALL BUSINESS AWARD